When you get those things in your e-mail, just delete them (or mark it as spam if you have a filter).

Contact the schools directly or....

(I know I'm gonna hear about this!) I've found that recruiters CAN be a good thing. You can get them to do some of the negotiating for you at the outset if there are a couple of piddly things in the contract that you don't like (make them earn their commission). Placement agencies (like the stuff that comes from TEFL Network) are usually run by places outside of China (I've noticed that most of them are in England).

As far as knowing if a recruiter is reputable, that's where you have to take your chances. (If they want money from you, don't use them.)

I didn't work for Yuexiu but met some teachers from there, and they seemed reasonably happy there. The school has over 50 foreign language teachers, mostly for English and is located in the southern (somewhat industrial) edge of Shaoxing, which is a nice reasonably, sized city on the Dong Che (D-train) spur from Shanghai to Fuzhou (Xiamen?).

To answer the side note first: For Beijing, you basically have two choices of cities. You could live in Beijing or you could live in Tianjin, another huge city that is generally less than an hour away on the train from the core of Beijing. Shanghai is surrounded by many small to large cities with lots to offer in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces. Take a look at a Chinese train schedule site such as http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/ and see how directly a city is connected to other cities and how long it takes to get there. Note 1: some of the fast train (train no. starts with G- or D-) stations are so far out of the nominal town's central core that you have to add 45 min to an hour to the trip each way (not so in Shaoxing). Note 2: some cities are better served by buses but it's more difficult to get a bus schedule on line.

Personally, I prefer to live in a more walkable-sized city and take the occasional trip to the big smoke.

Issue 1- Yes, it is normal to be hired with no interview. Especially when dealing with schools directly, you may be hired based on your resume/CV. The way English is taught in China, many people whose job it is to interact with the foreigners are much more comfortable communicating in writing rather than orally.

Issue 2- Yes, it is relatively easy to contact the schools directly. Many have wikipedia entries. The university's city probably has an entry for wikipedia and often has contact information at the bottom of the page or in a "higher education" section. A few schools advertise directly on Dave's. Other websites have contact info., such as chinatefl dot com. As johntpartee said, if you use a recruiter, drop them immediately if they demand any money from you. The school pays recruiters.

China TEFL Network goes by many different names, and is notoriously famous. Just do a search on this forum of "Hangzhou and Helen", and you will find 33 matches with nothing good to say about the company.

You can find the schools website on the internet and use that to find the phone numbers in which you can call the school directly.

Who is showing lack of interest in a phone interview - the recruiter or the uni?
I wonder if the recruiter does NOT in fact have a deal for you at the uni and is hawking you around a few schools.
Smells to me like bait and switch.
Other posters have commented on this phenomenon and you don't mention a contract document stating Party A/Party B etc
Also, a school with the stated number of FTs would be unlikely to be looking for additional staff now.
What I mean is that one or two expected departures at Spring Break time could be absorbed by the existing teacher workforce.

I'll admit to using 'China TEFL Network' to land my job. With the job, I couldn't be happier, really landed on my feet I think. However, I wasn't afraid to say 'no' to different positions offered, and sometimes the recruiters (I dealt with two from China TEFL Network) did try and pressure me. One thing I should mention that is as soon as I signed the contract, they cut off all contact with me. They offered 'support after arrival' but they didn't even reply to emails.

I'd no experience with job hunting before (fresh out of uni and got part-time jobs through word of mouth), so tried recruiters. Knowing what I do now, I'd definitely approach universities directly.

No need to use the recruiter version of China TEFL. If you look closely all the schools that advertise on that site tell you how to contact them directly. If you're new to this business then use a recruiter if you wish but for anything after your first job it's usually just as easy if you cut out the middleman.

The Wikipedia entry for many Chinese cities has a 'Higher Education' link in the sidebar.
This will give you a list of unis and some vocational colleges.
These are not links but Google each of them and look for ones that have a contact email address labelled 'Staff' or 'International' or 'Foreign Affairs Office'.
Then get going with enquiries.
Useful if you're zeroing in on a specific location.
Be careful though, as Chinese city boundaries extend often to halfway to the next big city.
Accordingly a 'Dalian' location could be half way (3 hours by train) to Shenyang which is the provincial capital of Liaoning Prov.